Lake County graduate killed in Iraq will be honored

MOUNT DORA -- Mount Dora High School will have a memorial service on Wednesday for Marine Cpl. Christopher L. Poole Jr., Class of 2005, who was killed Sept. 6 in Iraq.

Sgt. Gary Ward, the ROTC coordinator at Mount Dora High, said the 2 p.m. service will begin in the cafeteria, then move into the courtyard, where a plaque dedicated to Poole will be unveiled.

The plaque was purchased using donations from individuals and several veterans associations, Ward said. The school plans to use additional donations to create a scholarship fund in Poole's memory.

Poole's mother, Donna Hunsicker, said Poole's brothers, Jeffery, 21, who graduated from Mount Dora High in 2006, and Joshua, 17, a junior at the school, led the effort to organize a memorial ceremony. Christopher Poole was 22.

"My boys felt like they weren't doing anything during the funeral -- the military takes care of almost everything," Hunsicker said. "They kept saying, 'I want to do something; what can I do?' "

Ward said he hopes Mount Dora students will remember Poole's sacrifice when they pass the plaque each day.

"It reminds you that people really do give up their lives freely so that freedom goes untarnished," he said.

Hunsicker echoed Ward's wishes.

"What Chris did, he did to save others," she said. "He was a hero long before he ever left for over the ocean."